STINSON: Maybe it's time we shouldn't worry so much about the Raptors

There was a moment, when Kawhi Leonard charged into the lane on a fast break during the second overtime of Game 3, and he leapt up, holding the basketball in his giant left hand.

Guess his leg is OK, I thought.

Then he slammed the ball through the hoop, and landed a little awkwardly, made a hesitant little hop, and it was plain to see: He’s not quite right.

Perhaps that will not matter. Leonard played most of his 52 minutes on Sunday night after he tweaked whatever he tweaked on a layup early in the first quarter, and he still made most of Toronto’s key plays at both ends of the floor in the final moments as the Raptors pulled out their huge Game 3 overtime win. Maybe 36 hours of rest and rehab will be enough to ease him into something close to normal shape.

But if Raptors fans are looking for somewhere to focus their anxiety at this point in the playoff season, anxiety being the dominant emotion for this franchise in May, start there. If Leonard is scoring most of Toronto’s points and also starting most possessions as the primary defender on Giannis Antetokounmpo, who seems to be able to cover the entire length of the floor in four steps, the Raptors face certain doom if he ends up slowed down by injury.

But there is also this, which admittedly is a previously unimaginable thought for fans of this franchise at this time of year: Maybe try not to worry at all?

I know, I know. Such madness. But Sunday night would have been the biggest playoff moment in Raptors franchise history, were it not for what happened the previous Sunday at Scotiabank Arena, when Leonard’s game-winner dropped from the heavens, and then whole lifetimes transpired with the ball on the rim, and then the place exploded in joy.

There’s still a case to be made that Game 3 against the Milwaukee Bucks was, in fact, the most memorable playoff win in Raptors history, despite what happened to end Game 7 against the Sixers, if only because of the sheer length of Sunday’s win and the quantity of moments it produced. On three different occasions — at the end of regulation, and in both overtime periods — the Raptors appeared to seize control of the game with some huge plays, only to see the win slip away in the first two instances.

Those stretches were punctuated by thunderous roars in the arena when the game appeared to turn decisively Toronto’s way: A Leonard three-pointer to give the Raptors an eight-point lead with nine minutes to go in regulation, a Fred VanVleet (!) three-pointer with three minutes left, a Danny Green (!!) three-pointer early in the first overtime.

The second overtime had a bushel of those instances in quick succession, a Marc Gasol made three, that left-handed Leonard dunk in transition, a Leonard steal that brought another breakaway dunk, a soaring Pascal Siakam block of a Brook Lopez layup attempt and then, off that, Leonard driving to the basket to finish with a banked layup that gave the Raptors a four-point lead with 32 seconds left that they were finally able to nurse home.

Amid all of those bursts from the 19,900 or so in attendance — some truly puzzling individuals appeared to leave their seats after the first overtime — there were moments of abject terror, which mostly occurred when the Raptors were at the free-throw line.

Having watched Siakam honk a couple of freebies at the end of regulation that would have sealed the game, the arena was a giant bowl of red-shirted trepidation as Toronto attempted to finish the second overtime with free throws. Gasol hit a pair with less than three minutes to go, and Siakam and Leonard each made both of theirs in the final 30 seconds.

It was so tense and so quiet in the building that you could hear individual fans offering words of encouragement, and then other fans angrily shushing them. WE MUST HAVE TOTAL SILENCE.

In fairness, you could forgive those Raptors fans that were feeling the nerves in these times. Kyle Lowry and Norm Powell, two of their better players on the night, had fouled out, and Leonard was literally limping across the finish line, and there was all that tortured franchise playoff history, swept into a pile in the corner whenever the Raptors have some good games, but ready to be stirred up again whenever it goes wrong.

Wins like the one the Raptors managed on Sunday are why we get into sports in the first place. Comfortable victories are much easier on everyone, but those that come amid wild swings of emotion, when victory is seized, and lost, and seized again, those are the wins that make investing in a team feel special. It’s why you watch.

The Toronto Raptors had played in a lot of playoff games in recent years, and yet the list of signature wins was awfully thin. Game 7 against Miami in 2016? Game 6 against the Bucks two years ago? Even in those, fans were mostly relieved that the team hadn’t blown another playoff game to a weaker team.

This post-season has been just so different. Leonard has finished three games — Game 4 and 7 against Philadelphia — and Sunday against the Bucks, with plays that were instantly the stuff of franchise lore. It has been breathtaking, if occasionally heart-stopping, to watch.